Schwarzfahrer

i didn't know what to expect as i watched this short german film. i'd never read or heard anything about it, knowing only that it would be about racism. let me say that you will not get what you might expect.

i don't want to ruin the beauty of this film so i'll leave out any details and merely say that i thought of the ending about 10 times between the movie's conclusion and my bed-time, and that each time i did so, a huge smile crossed my face, accompanied by a chuckle. watch it.

Rather than rupture himself trying to start his motorbike, a gent (Stefan Merki) decides to just get the tram. Safely ensconced, he sees a young black lad (Paul Outlaw) board and ask an elderly lady (Senta Moira) if the vacant seat next to her is free. After a disdainful glance, she ignores him but he sits down anyway. What now ensues sees her indulge herself in a serious, out loud, moan to the whole carriage that illustrates quite effectively just how bigoted and out of touch this woman is. Initially, the fellow passengers just nod and smile, but gradually they tune out and are subsequently distracted by an other passenger whose headphones are a bit noisy but nowhere near as offensive. Then the ticket inspector gets on and, well you know what they say about vengeance being sweet? Well here it's a bit inky, too! It's a gentle indictment of apathy, of keeping your head down and a stronger one of entrenched attitudes that say much more about their speaker than their intended target, but in the end there is a distinctly satisfying vindication that did make me smile.

Pepe Danquart's Oscar-winning "Schwarzfahrer" is a look not only at racism, but at its subtlety. The old woman who rants against immigrants is odious enough, but more important is that no one challenges her. To be certain, her rant sounds like what we still hear from these losers, or from politicians looking to score votes. I immediately saw a link between the old woman's "blacks carry AIDS" and Donald Trump's "Mexicans bring drugs".

It would be easy to say that due to Germany's history, it has no choice but to make movies like this. In reality this should apply to every country. Racism exists everywhere. And as Billy Bragg said, racism must always get challenged. After all, no one is born racist.

Definitely see the movie.

This movie has everything I expect in a short. Swiftness, beautiful cinematography, good subject matter, great characters, totally surprise and feel-good ending. One of the surprises is that I only found out what the subject was half way into the film. It's well worth seeing.

After watching a few short films made by university students and some Oscar winning shorts, I have observed that the films that win acclaim mostly fix its entire scope on a singular event and generally elevate the movie to a level where one presumes he or she has guessed the ending only to be deceived with a climax that is highly unexpected yet totally believable and (forgive me for using this word but I still have the teenager in me) awesome!

When a black man is humiliated on a train for an extended period of time by an elderly woman and there is a supporting focus on a third character, we always tend to assume the third character comes to focus in the end. I had a feeling that the guy would suddenly face the woman and ask her to control herself. Or say the child sitting opposite would kick the lady. Or if the director goes for a Scary Movie ending, then all the passengers would get up and stab that hag to death. But the ending will be a surprise no one would have guessed.

The thing that fetched it the Oscar, apart from its plot, is the irony in the title. Not many movies have so cleverly named their film.

My Rating: 8 out of 10